Taiwanese voters flocked to the polls for local elections Saturday, hours after a gunman opened fire on a campaign rally in a Taipei suburb, killing one man and critically wounding the son of a former vice president.

Longtime rivals China and Taiwan were set to sign a broad-reaching trade deal Tuesday to draw their economies closer, which Beijing hopes could lead to a political accommodation, six decades after they split amid civil war.

A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Taiwan on Thursday, terrifying residents, disrupting communications and triggering at least one large fire. Sixty-four people were injured, the National Fire Agency said.

Contacts with China's military would likely be the first to suffer if Beijing moves to retaliate over upcoming U.S. arms sales to Taiwan the latest in a flurry of disputes elevating tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Tens of thousands of opposition demonstrators marched through the streets of the central Taiwanese city of Taichung on Sunday, ahead of the arrival of a senior Chinese envoy for trade talks that some on the island fear could eventually lead to unification.